| Course | DBA-8800 Ethical Leadership and Cultural Competency in the 21st Century |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Final project: DEI improvement plan presented in a 10- to 15-minute video |
| Length | About 907 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 slide deck with speaker notes |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | Doctor of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for DBA 8800 Module 5
Safe to Speak on the Night Shift: A Change Plan for Inclusion and Psychological Safety
Student Name
Doctor of Business Administration, Thomas Edison State University
DBA-8800: Ethical Leadership and Cultural Competency in the 21st Century
Mentor Name
Month Day, Year
Slide 1: Safe to Speak on the Night Shift
A change plan for inclusion and psychological safety in our four warehouses. Twelve minutes, one decision requested.
Speaker notes: Good afternoon. In twelve minutes I want to show you what our numbers have been hiding, why it is about inclusion as well as safety, and the plan I am asking you to approve.
Slide 2: The Problem in One Number
Near-miss reports per 10,000 hours worked: day shift 4.1, night shift 0.8. Recordable injuries per 10,000 hours: day 1.2, night 1.9.
Speaker notes: Night associates report near misses at one fifth the day rate, yet they are injured more often. The night shift is not safer; it is quieter. When people do not report small problems, we learn about them only when someone gets hurt.
Slide 3: Who Is Affected
About 250 night associates. Spanish and Haitian Creole are the home languages of most. Median tenure under two years. Supervisors mostly English speakers promoted from days.
Speaker notes: Silence is heaviest among new hires, people still learning English and crews whose supervisors came over from days. In our focus groups, associates said reporting a mistake felt risky because they did not know how it would be received.
Slide 4: Why This Is About Inclusion
Speaking up depends on belonging. Edmondson (1999): teams that feel safe to speak learn faster. Nembhard and Edmondson (2006): leader inclusiveness raises it, especially for lower-status members.
Speaker notes: Edmondson found that teams improve when people trust that a raised concern will not cost them face or standing. Later work in hospitals found that leaders who invite and appreciate input raise that sense of safety most for those at the bottom of the hierarchy. On our night shift, language, tenure and supervisor background all place associates at the bottom.
Slide 5: What We Heard
Focus groups in three languages, 42 associates. Three themes: reporting form only in English; supervisors ask "who did it" first; reports seem to disappear.
Speaker notes: These are their words, translated. One associate said, "If I report, I become the problem." Another said she had reported a broken dock plate twice and never heard back. Each theme points to something we control: language, leader responses and follow-through.
Slide 6: The Change Strategy
Kotter's stages as the sequence: urgency, guiding group, vision, barriers removed, short-term wins, anchoring. Helbig and Norman's playbook for daily leader behaviors.
Speaker notes: I propose Kotter (1996) as the frame because this change touches many people and habits at once. Helbig and Norman (2023) give us the daily behaviors leaders practice, such as asking before telling and thanking people for raising problems, which turn the plan into habits on the floor.
Slide 7: Urgency and the Guiding Group
Share the injury and reporting gap with every manager this month. Guiding group: the chief operating officer, two night supervisors, two night associates, the safety manager and me.
Speaker notes: Two of the seven seats belong to night associates, chosen by their peers. A plan about speaking up should not be designed without the people we want to hear from.
Slide 8: The Vision and the Changes
Vision: anyone on any shift can raise a concern in their own language and see what happened to it. Changes: reporting by phone, paper or voice message in three languages; a "thank, then ask" rule for leaders; every report answered within 72 hours.
Speaker notes: The three changes answer the three themes we heard. Language barriers fall with multilingual reporting. Blame falls when leaders thank the reporter before asking what happened. Follow-through becomes visible through a 72-hour answer and a weekly board showing what was fixed.
Slide 9: Leaders Go First
Supervisors practice three behaviors from the playbook: ask before telling, thank specific reports, admit their own mistakes in huddles. Monthly coaching for night supervisors.
Speaker notes: Associates will believe the change when they see their own supervisor respond differently. Each supervisor will open one huddle a month with a mistake of their own and what they learned, which signals that mistakes can be spoken about.
Slide 10: Ethical Leadership
Fairness: night associates deserve the same protection from harm as day associates. Respect: people should not have to speak English to be heard about their own safety. Accountability: leaders answer for follow-through.
Speaker notes: This is not only a safety program. It is a question of who is protected and who is heard. An organization that hears only one shift is treating the other as less important, whatever its policies say.
Slide 11: Measures and Timeline
Months 1-3: reporting channels, supervisor coaching. Months 4-6: weekly fix board, first review. Targets by month 12: night near-miss rate at least 3.0 per 10,000 hours; night injuries at or below day rate; anonymous safety climate survey up 20 percent.
Speaker notes: We will measure reporting, injuries and how safe associates say they feel, by shift and language. If reporting rises and injuries fall, the plan is working. If reporting rises and nothing gets fixed, we will lose trust faster than before, which is why the fix board matters.
Slide 12: The Decision We Ask For
Approve the plan and a first-year budget of $48,000 for translation, the reporting line and coaching. First review in six months.
Speaker notes: I am asking for approval today. The cost is small next to one serious injury, and the larger cost is a shift of people who have learned to stay quiet. Thank you. I welcome your questions.
References
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Helbig, K., & Norman, M. (2023). The psychological safety playbook: Lead more powerfully by being more human. Page Two Press.
Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Harvard Business School Press.
Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: The effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941-966. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.413
What the DBA 8800 Module 5 instructions ask for
The DBA-8800 final project applies a change management strategy to a problem related to inclusion and diversity that is currently affecting organizations, and you deliver your improvement plan as a presentation in a 10- to 15-minute video. It is worth 20 percent of the grade, with details posted in the course's Final Project section. Module 5's focus on ethical leadership and psychologically safe environments makes psychological safety a strong subject. Expect to define the problem with evidence, show who is affected, choose a change model, set out the plan, address ethics and give measures, all in slides with speaker notes you can speak from.
Inside the DBA 8800 Module 5 example
The deck opens with one comparison, near-miss reports at a fifth of the day rate alongside higher injuries, so the audience sees the problem before any theory. It names the people affected and uses Edmondson's research and the hospital study by Nembhard and Edmondson to frame speaking up as inclusion. Focus group themes link directly to three changes: multilingual reporting, a thank-then-ask rule and visible follow-through. Kotter's stages structure the plan, and Helbig and Norman's playbook supplies leader behaviors. An ethics slide names fairness, respect and accountability. Measures by shift and language, a budget and a clear request close the presentation.
Reading the DBA 8800 Module 5 grading rubric
Mentors grade the final presentation on a clearly defined inclusion problem with evidence, sound use of a change management strategy, a feasible improvement plan, ethical reasoning, use of course texts and research, and the clarity of delivery within the time limit. Decks that show a problem with data, then trace each part of the plan to what affected people said, demonstrate rigor. Speaker notes that explain rather than repeat slides show preparation. Measures disaggregated by the groups affected show that the plan can be held accountable. A concrete request at the end shows the presenter understands the audience is there to decide. Speaker notes that cite sources aloud, as the hospital study is cited here, keep a video presentation scholarly without crowding the slides.
DBA 8800 Module 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Decks slip when slides turn into paragraphs, when the change model is named and never applied, or when the problem has no evidence behind it. Others propose a training session as the whole plan. Trim slides to a few words each, move the argument into the notes and do a timed run-through before you record. Use one number that captures the problem, show what the people affected told you and tie each action to a cause. End with measures and a decision. Request a free first draft of your DBA-8800 final presentation, built on your own organization's problem. Check the timing by reading the speaker notes aloud before recording, since twelve slides of notes at a natural pace run close to twelve minutes.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Thomas Edison State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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DBA 8800 Module 5 questions, answered
Where can I find a free DBA 8800 Module 5 sample paper?
The slides above present a change plan for psychological safety on a port logistics firm's night shift as the DBA-8800 final project.
What is the DBA-8800 final project?
A change management plan for a current inclusion and diversity problem, delivered as a presentation in a 10- to 15-minute video.
What is psychological safety?
The shared sense, in Edmondson's work, that a team will not punish or mock someone for raising a concern or confessing an error.
How long is the DBA-8800 final presentation?
Ten to 15 minutes, delivered by video, with details in the course's Final Project section.
How should speaker notes differ from slides?
Slides carry a few key lines, and the notes carry the explanation, evidence and transitions the presenter will speak.